Even today, female film characters often get the short end of the stick, stereotyped, robbed of agency or shunted to supporting roles. There are, of course, women who break the mold… and then there are the ladies who shatter that old thing pieces on their way to get stuff done. Healers or killers, historically based or entirely made-up, the women in these 10 films have one thing in common: a cause worth fighting for.

Talk about strong female characters who aren’t afraid to challenge notions of violence and femininity. In HARD CANDY, airing tonight at 10P, Ellen Page plays a 14-year-old vigilante takes on a pedophile, messing with his head — and ours. We’re supposed to tell you violence won’t solve the world’s problems, but let’s be honest: Sometimes, payback’s a bitch. Here are five of our favorite film girls who are so bad, they’re good.

Vengeance as a core theme is no stranger to Asian cinema, and it’s been employed by directors working in genre cinema (Shunya Ito’s FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION) as well as those catering to the arthouse crowd (Akira Kurosawa’s THE BAD SLEEP WELL). Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL films were an amalgam of Asian revenge films; everything from Hong Kong Kung-Fu flicks of the 70s to Toshiya Fujita’s LADY SNOWBLOOD series.